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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30014286">Arrabiata</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crollalanza/pseuds/Crollalanza'>Crollalanza</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SK8 the Infinity (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Food, High School, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:41:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,892</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30014286</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crollalanza/pseuds/Crollalanza</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m making pasta with Arrabiata sauce,” Kojiro says after a while. “It translates as ‘angry sauce’.”</p>
<p>“Do you turn into the hulk making it?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, it helps me crush the garlic,” he replies, miming squashing a clove between his finger and thumb.</p>
<p>And Kaoru smiles, a small smile it’s true, but nonetheless a smile and Kojiro realises it’s the first smile he’s seen from him for at least a month.</p>
<p>Not since—</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>179</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Arrabiata</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My first fic for this fandom... sort of ... </p>
<p>(There's another one hovering around the ether) </p>
<p>Anyway, Joe and Italian food have my heart right now.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As he’s thrown to the ground—landing slap on his back—Kojiro somehow manages a reflection on how dumb he’s been forgetting Kaoru’s strength. Winded, he stares up at the sky, blinking as his friend stands over him.</p>
<p>Friend?</p>
<p>Former friend?</p>
<p>He isn’t sure anymore.</p>
<p>“What the hell was that for?” Kaoru demands, scowling.</p>
<p>Coughing, Kojiro doesn’t move apart from waving his hand feebly. “Hey, I’m the one lying on the ground in deathly pain here.”</p>
<p>“How do you expect me to react when I’m put in a headlock by an unknown assailant?”</p>
<p>“I’m not unknown.”</p>
<p>Kaoru glares at him, then leans over to haul him to his feet. “What do you want?”</p>
<p>“It’s been a while, that’s all. Thought you were avoiding me… uh … us.” Brushing down his clothes, he ignores the twinge in his back and tries what he hopes is a winning smile. “Wanna do something?”</p>
<p>“Not particularly. And I don’t have my board.”</p>
<p>“We don’t have to skate,” Kojiro replies. “We could just hang.”</p>
<p>“We never ‘hang’,” Kaoru says. “We don’t have that sort of friendship.”</p>
<p>
  <em>Still friendship, I guess that’s a start.</em>
</p>
<p>“Um, how about you come over to mine?”</p>
<p>“Why? I told you I don’t have my board.”</p>
<p>
  <em>Because I miss you. And it’s been over a week and …</em>
</p>
<p>“I have an ulterior motive,” Kojiro says instead.</p>
<p>“Here it comes. A new cool move you want me to help analyse. My brain to calculate the angles and—”</p>
<p>“Actually no,” Kojiro replies, attempting to drawl. “It’s a dish I need to perfect and my parents are out.”</p>
<p>“And you can’t eat alone,” Kaoru rolls his eyes. “Of course not. ‘Food should be shared.’,” he mimics, but not unkindly. And then he takes a breath, seemingly needing oxygen to loosen up the decision making process, and whistles it out through his lips. “Yes, thank you.”</p>
<p>It’s a fifteen minute walk to Kojiro’s home, five on the board, but Kaoru really <em>hasn’t</em> brought his with him, and so they walk—more or less companionably—with the odd jostling of arms and Kojiro’s running commentary of complaints about the maths homework he hasn’t started yet.</p>
<p>“Why do I need maths?”</p>
<p>“It’s a useful skill.”</p>
<p>“Not for a chef.”</p>
<p>“Don’t you need to weigh ingredients, calculate recipes when you’re scaling up or down?”</p>
<p>He shrugs. “My phone has a calculator.  You like maths, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“I like the puzzle and calculation is good for…” He tails off, screwing up his face.</p>
<p>“I’m making spaghetti with Arrabiata sauce,” Kojiro says after a while. “It translates as ‘angry sauce’.”</p>
<p>“Do you turn into the hulk making it?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, it helps me crush the garlic,” he replies, miming squashing a clove between his finger and thumb.</p>
<p>And Kaoru smiles, a small smile it’s true, but nonetheless a smile and Kojiro realises it’s the first smile he’s seen from him for at least a month.</p>
<p>
  <em>Not since—</em>
</p>
<p>He blinks, and then increases his pace seeing his street ahead.</p>
<p>“Will there be a lot of garlic?” Kaoru calls out, sounding faintly fearful.</p>
<p>“Keeps the vampires away,” Kojiro retorts as he fishes out his key. “C’mon. I’m hungry.”</p>
<p>Kaoru’s right, of course. They’re not the type of friends who ‘hang’, certainly not inside watching tv or talking of nothing. It was skating that brought them into each other’s orbit and skating which has dominated their lives. And now, Cherry’s turned his back on it, Joe wonders what they’ll talk about.</p>
<p><em>We’re Kojiro and Kaoru</em>, he says in his head, then tells Kaoru out loud to dump his stuff by the door and follow him to the kitchen.</p>
<p>“Are you really going to become a chef when you leave school?” Kaoru asks.</p>
<p>“Yup. I need to decide which route to take, though.”</p>
<p>“Route?”</p>
<p>“College or work my way up.” He waggles his hand. “Or a bit of both. Working and part time course. And you?”</p>
<p>“My father keeps thrusting accountancy course leaflets at me,” Kaoru sighs.</p>
<p>“Well, if you will go being all good at that maths malarkey.”</p>
<p>“It’s a job, I guess.”</p>
<p>Kojiro brews them a pot of tea. It’s something his Mum always does when she feels they need to ‘talk’ and what he’s thinking right now is that Kaoru needs to talk, needs to get what’s out of his mind into the open before it tangles and strangles him even more. But he can’t broach the subject straight away; something else his Mum’s taught him, is that the circuitous route sometimes gets the quickest results.</p>
<p>“What would you like to do?” he asks.</p>
<p>“Nothing to do with skate boards,” Kaoru replies brutally.</p>
<p>“I didn’t say a word!”</p>
<p>“But that’s what this is gearing up to, right? A why haven’t you been practising, Cherry? Why aren’t you joining me? What’s happening? Why? Why? Why?”</p>
<p>So much for the circuitous route.</p>
<p>“I know why,” Kojiro mumbles. “He’s gone. You practised and obsessed over it for weeks, then … what, you’ve got it into your pretty head that he’s not coming back, so you’ve given up?” He reaches out to grab Kaoru’s hand before he leaves, but Kaoru hasn’t moved.</p>
<p>“I know he’s not,” Kaoru mutters. “And maybe this is the kick I need to grow up.”</p>
<p>“Become an accountant?” He’s still holding Kaoru’s hand, unwilling to relinquish it quite yet.</p>
<p>“That would be very grown up, wouldn’t it?” he says with a bitter laugh.</p>
<p>“You could keep my books,” Kojiro suggests, and intertwines his thick fingers through Kaoru’s slender ones.</p>
<p>Sniffing, Kaoru wipes his eyes. “I guess that would be creative. I could fiddle you out of every penny and you’d have no idea.” Then he picks up his mug of tea with his free hand and takes a sip. “Do you miss him?”</p>
<p>“Adam? Um … not exactly. His presence, sure, and his skating was inspirational. At least… it was at first, but now…” He stands up, not wanting to be this close anymore in case Kaoru’s touch burns him. “He’s cruel. Attracts people like moths to a flame and I don’t want my wings or anything else singed. You know this, Cherry.”</p>
<p>“I wanted to beat him. That was all. But he’s not coming back and the rest is … I’m empty, Joe.”</p>
<p>And now the silence is suffocating. Kojiro can hear the minutest of sniffs and tiny sips, and although he doesn’t want to, he peeks over his shoulder checking for tears glistening on Kaoru’s eyelashes. But he’s composed himself, his cheeks returning to their porcelain hue. He half expects him to leave now, but Kaoru stays, his breaths regular, even as Kojiro’s heart pulsates unevenly.</p>
<p>“How do you make your angry sauce?” Kaoru asks.</p>
<p>Relaxing, Kojiro reaches for his pan, “Um, onions, tomatoes, garlic and chillies. And there should be red wine, but we don’t have any.”</p>
<p>“Maybe the alcohol is what makes people angry,” Kaoru muses and stands up. “Can I help?”</p>
<p>“Not really. It’s very quick.”</p>
<p>“Is that why you like it?”</p>
<p>“Speed and guts.” He considers. “Yeah, probably.”</p>
<p>He’s scratching for things to say because if skating is off limits and Adam is definitely banned as a topic, then all he has left to talk about is food and he doesn’t want Kaoru to think that’s all he is. “Will you go away to college?” he rasps.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Accountancy courses?”</p>
<p>“Oh no. It’s an option, but not one I want to do.”</p>
<p>He designates Kaoru to grate cheese, while he speedily chops onions, fries them in olive oil, crushes garlic, adds tomatoes and chilli flakes, letting it simmer.</p>
<p>“You’re deft with a knife,” Kaoru murmurs. “And at speed.”</p>
<p>“I’ve been working on it. So what would you want to do?” He grimaces hearing the ‘mum’ tone in his voice. “Sorry!”</p>
<p>“Huh?” Kaoru is watching the pan as it splutters.</p>
<p>“You don’t want to hear me nag.”</p>
<p>“You don’t nag. That sauce is choleric.”</p>
<p>Did he use the word to trip Kojiro up? He’s not sure, but Kojiro’s response is mild, even as he stirs a little too briskly. “Like I said, arrabiata means angry.”</p>
<p>As the sauce bubbles, some of it splutters out of the pan and onto the white chopping board, Almost idly, Kaoru dabbles it with his finger, but instead of tasting, he uses the rich sauce as a painter would brush it onto a canvas.</p>
<p>“What will you call your restaurant?”</p>
<p>Not if, but will. The faith leaves Kojiro stumbling for an answer. “Um, I dunno? Joe’s?”</p>
<p>“Joe’s.” He writes it out with his finger in the sauce, the s smearing to nothing. Then with a slight frown, he opens a drawer, finds a small pastry brush and without asking dips it in the sauce.</p>
<p><em>My pastry brush. Bought for glazes and egg wash. Not for oily sauces. </em>But he says nothing because Kaoru has that intense look on his face, the one he assumes when he’s about to race, or figuring out a jump. On the chopping board, he paints JOE’S in angry red sauce, then drizzles a stream of olive oil around the edge like a border, and uses the brush to feather black pepper into the corners.</p>
<p>“That’s … uh … neat,” Kojiro says, and he’s not exactly lying because rough though it is, there’s a certain dynamism laid bare on his chopping board. But then Kaoru’s always had this fascination for aesthetic.</p>
<p>“Make it something longer, and I’ll charge you by the character when I design it for you,” Kaoru says laughing.</p>
<p>“I’ll pay you with food. Talking of which, spaghetti, linguine or penne?”</p>
<p>“Um, what’s the shell one?”</p>
<p>“Conchiglie. I don’t have any.”</p>
<p>“Shame…” he murmurs, but not really to Kojiro because he’s staring instead at the pastry brush, feeling it with his fingertips, before sweeping it across the board, striking out JOE’S with a mess of swirls and loops. “This isn’t a great canvas; the colour bleeds into it.”</p>
<p>“Because it’s a chopping board. Used for chopping,” Kojiro relies, a touch of sarcasm surfacing.</p>
<p>Not that Kaoru responds. He’s still playing with the brush, now pressing it down onto the board so it splays out like a sunflower. And Kojiro grits his teeth as he puts a pan of water on the hob to boil because the brush is new, a delicate thing for when he attempts sfogliatelle, and not a fucking paint brush!</p>
<p>“Hey,” he says, when he can bear it no more and snatches the brush away.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Food’s ready. You might want to wash your hands.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It’s later, when both are replete, that Kaoru returns to the subject of the future. “Accountancy is too safe,” he says.</p>
<p>“A job for life,” Kojiro says, mopping up the last of the sauce with the bread.</p>
<p>“But not my life.”</p>
<p>Kojiro hears the dissatisfaction, but it’s mixed with a kind of longing and also excitement, the need to try something new and explore. Like when they tackle a different course or a new jump.</p>
<p>An excitement he’s not heard from Kaoru since Adam left and he bites his tongue not wanting to disrupt the moment.</p>
<p>“You know what I’d like to do right now,” Kaoru says.</p>
<p>“Eat more of my delicious food. Make cannoli with me? Wash up?” Kojiro smiles at him. “Help me with my maths homework?”</p>
<p>Kaoru smiles back, but he shakes his head. “All of them, maybe, but first, Joe … let’s go skate.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading. Exciting and scary entering a new fandom - eeeek</p></blockquote></div></div>
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